Beneath the Surface
by soultaker78
Summary: Pre PP. Danny attempts to take things further with Sam, but it doesn't go as planned. This leads Sam to being drawn towards the last person she expected. SxP.
1. Chapter 1

Danny couldn't believe what he was about to do. Over the past few months, Danny had felt feelings of more than friendship growing inside him for Sam. He had convinced to Sam to meet with him privately in her room where he was going to tell the goth girl how he truly felt about her.

To say Danny was nervous would be an understatement. Fortunately he had a back up plan that took some of the edge off. His contingency was to tell Sam that he was testing to see if there could be something more between them if things did not go well.

He had been flying while invisible for a while. He made it to Sam's place and phased into Sam's room. He saw Sam inside and reverted to his human form.

"Hi Danny," Sam said. "Now what is this that you wanted to talk to me about?"

"Well you see," Danny began, then realized that he didn't have any idea how to articulate his feelings. He decided to take the direct approach. "I'm not sure how to put this, so I'm just going to say it. I like you as more than a friend and I want to see if there can be anything more between us."

"Oh Danny," Sam said as though she had just gotten the best news imaginable. "I like you too. I have for what's felt like forever," She said as she embraced Danny in a hug. She then brought her mouth up to his and kissed him. He kissed back. After their mouths were intertwined for over 10 seconds, Sam became very uncomfortable and backed away.

"This isn't good," Sam muttered to herself. "Why did it have to be like this?"

"Sam, what's wrong?" Danny asked, concern and fear evident in his voice. "Did I mess up during the kiss?"

"It's not that Danny. When I kissed you, I felt nothing."

"But you said that you wanted this for like forever. You're not making a lot of sense."

"I know. For the last few months, I've been trying to deny certain things within me. But when we just kissed and I didn't feel anything, it proved that I can no longer stay in denial."

"What are you trying to say Sam?" Danny asked.

"I'm gay," she said.

"Oh," Danny said for lack of anything else to say. "But you said that you had feelings for me for almost forever," he said in confusion.

"I know," Sam said sadly. "Like I said earlier, I've been trying to deny this for a while. I did have those feelings for you, but you have to keep in mind that people rarely know what they want. You probably dreamed about being a superhero before you found out how complicated it makes your life."

"Good point," Danny conceded. "But what about you? I mean, you don't get along well with your parents as it is. If they find out about you being gay, they'll disown you or send you to hetero camp."

"Relax. I'm just going to stay in the closet till I'm 18. Then I'll move out and never see them again, just like I've been planning since I was 11. But what about you?"

"What about me?"

"You just said that you wanted us to take things to the next level, now you find out that I'm gay. Are you okay with that?"

Danny took a big breath before he answered. "I'll admit, this does suck. But if we were really meant to be more than friends, than this wouldn't have happened. Besides, this way we don't risk our friendship."

"Thanks Danny," Sam said, then briefly hugged him. "How do you think Tucker's going to take this?"

"Knowing him, he'll be ecstatic to find out that he now has a best friend that's a lesbian," Danny said, causing them both to laugh.

--

The next day at school was very educational for Sam. Now that she had accepted that she was gay, she found herself attracted to several girls without the feelings of shame that she had experienced before. Then there was the matter of her feelings towards Paulina.

Ever since she had started experiencing lesbian feelings, Sam had kept having thoughts revolving around Paulina being hot. She still hated the preppy girly-girl, but was also physically attracted to her at the same time. But now something had happened that made Sam see those feelings in a new light.

Paulina had recently been booted out of the school's A-list. Sam wasn't sure why the bubbly hispanic girl had been deposed from her throne of popularity, but that wasn't important. What was important was that in light of her recent self revelation, Sam decided she was going to extend the olive branch to Paulina in the spirit of new beginnings.

Sam wasn't sure of her motives with approaching Paulina. She told herself that she just wanted to make amends with Paulina on the grounds that she could change the former socialite. But in the back of her head, Sam felt the urge to do intimate things with Paulina. _First, let's try being nice then see where that goes, _Sam thought.

After school, Sam found Paulina and walked up to her. "Oh, great," Paulina said sarcastically when she spotted Sam. "I guess you're here to mock me too. Well go ahead, because almost everyone else in this school has beaten you to the punch so I doubt you have anything to say that I haven't heard before," she said, completely devoid of the bubblyness in her voice that she once had.

"I'm not here for that," Sam said. "Let's just say that since you're not one of the popular crowd anymore, you're not as bad as I thought. I want to see if there's more to you than what I've seen."

"In that case, you're going to be very satisfied," Paulina said with a smirk. "But first, I want to get some food."

And so Sam and Paulina walked away from the school together. Little did they know that they had just started a chain of events that would lead to outcomes neither of them had imagined.


	2. Chapter 2

Sam and Paulina had made their way to the Nasty Burger. They got their food (both of them ordered salads) and sat down at a booth. "So Paulina," Sam said as she started eating her food, "why were you kicked out of the popular crowd? Did you wear a piece of clothing that was 10 minuets out of style? Have an opinion of your own?"

"Kind of that last one," Paulina replied. "Here's what happened. I was at this party last weekend and Dash got me into a closet with him. He wanted to have sex with me. I said no, he kept insisting -- both verbally and not so -- so I kneed him in the balls. He threw me out of the closet and told everyone that I was gay, because in his mind the only reason a girl wouldn't want to sleep with him is because she was gay. Now everyone is treating me like I have the plague because Dash told them to."

"That sucks," Sam said. "But why didn't you want to sleep with him?"

"Would you want to sleep with him?"

"No, but then you and I are very different people."

"Maybe not," Paulina said. "I'm really not like the bubbly, preppy girly girl persona that I put on. That's just an act so that I can," she paused as she realized that those days were over, "could be a part of the popular crowd. Kind of like how you dye your hair and wear colored contacts to pull off the whole goth look."

"How did you know that!?" Sam exclaimed.

"I didn't. You just told me," Paulina said with a sly smirk.

"I just walked right into that one, didn't I?" Sam asked in a tone that signified that she was not pleased.

"You sure did. Anyway, back to your question: I didn't want to sleep with Dash because he's a spoiled brat of a sadistic bastard."

Sam was a bit surprised at this answer. She had always pictured Paulina as someone who only cared about someone else's looks or status. But as she slowly learning, there was much more to Paulina than met the eye. This peaked the goth girl's curiosity.

"I want to say now that I'm sorry for all the mean crap I've done to you in the past," Paulina said. "I had to do those things because the only way I could be the shallow bitch in charge of all the other shallow bitches is if I acted the part. I know that doesn't make of for it, but I just wanted to say it."

"Apology accepted -- for now," Sam said, surprised by the hispanic girls admission of fault. "But why did you even want to be one of the cool kids if it meant living a lie?"

"Why else? To get the respect of admiration of those around me."

"But they weren't really respecting or admiring you. They were respecting and admiring who they thought you were. I mean..."

"To keep you from going on a rant where you denounce conformity and bash conventional teenaged mindsets, why don't I just agree with everything you're going to say," Paulina interrupted.

"All right," Sam said. _For now, _she added in her head.

"God, I hate this," Paulina moaned. "All the people who I thought were my friends have abandoned me. Even Star, and I was holding such a torch for her," Paulina said, then her eyes widened in shock as she realized that she had just said too much.

"You mean you're..." Sam started.

"Bi," Paulina finished before the dark dressed teen jumped to conclusions. Then an awkward silence fell over them as they thought of how to change the subject. Eventually, Paulina came up with something. "So, what are the real colors of your hair and eyes?"

"That's very personal. I'd rather not tell you."

"I just told you that I'm smarter than everyone thought I was and that I'm bisexual. I think the least you can do in return is tell me your natural hair and eye color."

"Good point," Sam admitted. "My eyes are actually green. As for my hair," Sam took a deep breath as she prepared to reveal her deepest secret. "I'm a natural blond."

Paulina laughed a little at this, which caused Sam to squint her eyes in anger. "I'm not laughing at you," Paulina said. "It's just that Star is not a natural blond, even though she has the brains of one."

"Oh," Sam said as she relaxed her expression. Then she laughed a little as well, now seeing what was funny. _I can honestly say that I did not see this one coming, _the goth girl thought as she realized that she was laughing with a girl that she hated not 24 hours ago.

"I'm glad you liked that. Now, I hope you can help me with this little problem of mine. I have a certain information that would destroy Dash's reputation."

"Fat lot of good that's going to do you. Dash has the school so scared of him that they'll never take your word over his."

"I'm aware of that. More aware than most actually. Anyway, my problem is that I need to find a way to distribute the information anonymously and quickly," Paulina said, then the proverbial light bulb went off over her head. "Hey, you're friends with that blerd Foley, right?"

"Depends. What's a blerd?" Sam asked.

"A black nerd."

"Then yes."

"Excellent," Paulina said as she brought her fingers together and did her best C. Montgomery Burns impression. "His technological expertise could find a solution for my dilemma. That is, if you convince him to help me."

"You can try to convince him yourself," Sam said. "At my place this Friday night. He, Danny and I are going to watch some movies then. You can come too."

"Great," Paulina said. "I could use your help at my place with another problem of mine."

"What problem is that?"

"You'll just have to come over tomorrow and find out," Paulina teased.

"All right. I'll see you then," Sam said as stood up and prepared to leave the fast food place. She was surprised about the conversation she had just had with the hispanic girl. _But considering that my best friend is half ghost, stranger things have happened, _Sam thought.

--

Author's notes: keep in mind that in this story, the Paulina we have seen in the show is simply an act she puts on. And I don't know any way to put in the story, so I'll say it here. When Paulina is speaking now, she still has her accent but not the bubbly inflection in her voice.


	3. Chapter 3

The following day at school, Sam, Danny and Tucker had had gathered during lunch at a table. "And she's going to be joining us for movie night this Friday," Sam said, just finishing telling her friends about her encounter yesterday.

"Cool," Tucker said. "But I can't help but wonder if you have some ulterior motive for playing nice with Paulina."

"And just what is that supposed to mean?" Sam asked.

"Let's look at the facts: first you find out you're gay, then you find out that not only is Paulina not as bad as you always thought, but she's also bi. What I'm getting at is that you are trying to get into her pants," Tucker explained.

"Well I'm not," Sam said. _Maybe later, but not right now, _she internally added.

"That's quite a story Sam," Danny said. "But I also want to invite someone else to movie night this Friday."

"And who's that?"

"Valerie."

"Valerie!?" Tucker exclaimed. "Have your dad's genes caught up with you and you've lost your mind?"

"Possibly," Danny admitted. "But hear me out. It's possible that I might de-transorm in public one day and my secret will be out of the bag. Kind of like what happened last summer, except we wouldn't have a reality gauntlet to do a grand-scale mind wipe. Plus, did I tell you guys about all that happened when she caught my cousin Danni?"

"yes, you did."

"Imagine my surprise when I regained consciousness, found myself completely at her mercy and all she wanted to do was pump me for information. And then later, I was going to turn myself in to her as per our agreement and she let me go."

"What are you trying to say Danny?" Sam asked.

"What I'm getting at," Danny said, "is that I want to treat her nicely so that when or if she finds out my secret, she'll take it well. And another thing about that incident with her and Danni: it showed that while she has problems killing ghosts, she's not okay with killing half ghosts."

"You make several good points Danny. She can come Friday," Sam said. She suspected that Danny had an ulterior motive for wanting to extend the olive branch to Valerie. He was probably planning to try being a couple with her again. Not lang ago, that would have pissed off the goth girl. However that time had passed. Now she just hoped that Danny could find someone that would make him happy.

Tucker had reached the same conclusion as Sam. He wasn't exactly happy that both his friends were courting beautiful girls while he wasn't. But in the grand scheme of things, little had changed. He had simply gone from being a third wheel to a fifth wheel.

--

After school, Sam had gone over to Paulina's house. She rang the doorbell, was greeted by the hispanic girl's father and shown upstairs.

"Hello," Sam heard someone say to her. She turned towards the voice and found Paulina standing by an open door. "Come in," she said as she motioned for the dark dressed girl to walk into her bedroom.

Sam walked into Paulina's room and was instantly uncomfortable with what she saw. The room saw spacious and the walls were covered with wallpaper that had various colorful flowers. There was a queen sized bed with pink sheets as well as a pile of stuffed animals in a corner.

"Why am I here?" Sam complained.

"To help me with the demolition," Paulina said, which caused Sam to grin in satisfaction. Both girls went to the walls, grabbed the wallpaper and started tearing it down section by section. "Thank you for helping me with this," Paulina said after several sections had been taken down. "I've never liked how this room was set up."

"Then why did you have it set up this way?" Sam asked.

"It was all part of my act. In the event I had people over, I needed my room to look like it belonged to the bubbly air head everyone thought I was."

"Now, you see this is why I hate conformity. You couldn't even have your bedroom set up the way you liked because of your desire to fit in and be the one everyone turned to."

20 minuets later, the walls were stripped and the bed had been removed of sheets. Now, the two girls faced the question of what to do with the stuff animals. "I was thinking we'd take them to the backyard, pour kerosene on them and have a little bon fire," Paulina suggested.

"Ooooooooooh," Sam said, agreeing with the idea. But then her inner activist kicked in. "As awesome as that idea sounds, we should give these to charity."

"You're probably right. But I was really looking forward to that bon fire," Paulina said sadly.

"Why don't we compromise? We'll burn half of them and give the other half to charity," Sam suggested.

"Okay," Paulina agreed.

The two girls took half of the stuffed animals and brought them to the backyard, careful to place them on a concrete part to prevent the spread of flame. Kerosene was spread on the pile and a match was thrown on it. The pile ignited and all the animals were consumed by fire.

"Have you ever seen anything so beautiful?" Sam asked as she saw the stuffed animals burn.

"Once," Paulina said as she turned her head to face Sam. However the goth girl missed this.

Several minuets later, the pile of stuffed animals had been burned to ash. "That was cool," Sam said. "What do you want to do now?"

"I think we should shower," Paulina said. "To get rid of any ash or smoke that might have gotten on us."

"Good idea," Sam agreed, and the two girls made went back to Paulina's room.

"Sam, there's something I want you to do for me," Paulina said once they were back in her room. "I've let you see the real me. I would like to see the real you."

"But this is the real me. I've never hidden anything about myself to fit in."

"Except for changing your hair and eye color to be more goth like."

"Oh. That."

"I would really like to see your green eyes and what you look like as a blond."

Sam thought over what Paulina was saying. She supposed that the least she could do for the hispanic girl was show her real hair and eye color. "Okay Paulina, you win," Sam said

"Great. Now follow me," Paulina said as she left her room and Sam followed her. They walked down the hall and entered the bathroom Paulina used. The hispanic girl opened a cabinet and pulled out a shampoo bottle. "This is a special shampoo that gets rid of hair dye almost instantly."

"Why do you have it?"

"I sometimes like to experiment with hair dye. When I do, I like to cover the results if I don't like them. Now I'm sure that as an environmentalist, you're aware that it saves water for people to shower two at a time."

"That is true. Are you suggesting that we do that?" Sam asked.

"Why not?" Paulina asked with a sly grin.

_Holy crap, she's coming on to me, _Sam thought. She was not sure how to respond to this, but she did know how to respond to Paulina's offer to bathe together. "No thanks," Sam answered. _Maybe another time though._

Paulina left the bathroom so that Sam could have some privacy. The goth girl undid her ponytail, took of her clothes and stepped in the shower. As the water cascaded down her naked body, Sam thought about all she had learned of Paulina.

_She's defenintly not like I always thought she was _Sam thought. _She's intelligent, vindictive, a little eccentric... I could definitely see myself falling for her._

_--_

Some time later, Paulina had gotten her turn with the shower and was now looking at a blond Sam (who had used the special shampoo to wash away the dye on her eyebrows as well as on her head). "You look good as a blond," Paulina said.

"Thanks," Sam replied. The whole reason she dyed her hair was because of all the things associated with having blond hair and because it didn't work well with her gothic wordrobe. But now she was putting those things aside, and she had to admit that the blond hair did look good.

Sam then took out her colored contacts so that Paulina could see her real eyes. "Wow," Paulina said as she gazed at Sam's emerald orbs. "Their beautiful."

_I doubt that, _Sam thought as she took a close look at her eyes in the mirror. After looking at her eyes up close, she changed her mind. "Maybe I don't need the dye and contacts to go with my goth look."

"If you say so. Just a suggestion, try wearing a contact in one eye and have the other be green."

Sam did as Paulina suggested and put one of the contacts back in her left eye. "Oh," Sam said as she looked at her different colored eyes and liked the effect. "Good suggestion Paulina."

"I have another one in mind if you're interested," Paulina said. "But I'd rather show you than tell you."

And with that, Paulina placed her hands on the sides of Sam's face and pulled the dark dressed girl in for a kiss. Sam returned the kiss just as quickly as she had received it. The two kissed for several minuets before breaking apart.

"How did you know I was gay?" Sam asked.

"You're gay?" Paulina said.

"What? You just kissed me without knowing that I gay?"

"You didn't seem to mind while we were playing tonsil hockey."

"I am so pissed at you right now," Sam yelled at the hispanic girl. However, while her head was angry, her lapido was aroused. "Screw it. I'll be pissed at you later, for now let's just make out some more," Sam said, then put her mouth around Paulina's.


	4. Chapter 4

A few days later, It was Friday and Danny, Tucker, Valerie, Paulina and Sam had gathered in the goth girl's basement to watch movies and discuss revenge agaisnt Dash.

"Hello everybody," Paulina said. "I bet you're all interested in hearing my plan on destroying Dash's reputation," Paulina said and everyone nodded yes. "Well it's not much of a plan, but here it is. While Dash, Star and Kwan thought that I was a harmless bimbo, I gathered information to use agaisnt them in the event they turned agaisnt me. Which they did, so now I'm prepared. The information I've got agaisnt Dash is that he is not the natural athelete he would have everyone think he is. He uses steroids to make himself a good athelete."

"That would explain why he beats everyone up all the time," Danny said. "He's dealing with roid rage."

"That and he's a sadistic son of a bitch," Paulina added. "Anyway, my plan is to use Foley's technological expertise to send crap loads of anonomous e-mails with that information. Oh, and be sure to insuate that the school knows about Dash juicing up but doesn't care because he brings them good attention of the football field."

"You really think that's possible?" Valerie asked.

"If the school looks the other way about him beating people up, why wouldn't they do the same about his steroid use?" Paulina countered.

"Good point," Danny said. "But don't you think this is a little drastic. Dash isn't good at anything besides sports. If he's kicked of the football team, that's the kind of thing that could ruin his life."

"Dash is doomed to a life of mediocrity after high school. All I'm doing is speeding up the process. But I'm so pissed at Dash right now that if I knew him getting taken off the football team would push him to cuiside, I still wouldn't give a rat's ass!"

"Don't you think you're taking this a little too far?" Valerie asked. "I hated being kicked off the A-list as well, but not enough to wish death and misfortune on those who abandoned me."

"Well I really enjoyed being the center of attention and having everyone practiclly worship me," Paulina said. "In fact, there was this one time that I pleasured myself while thinking about how popular I was."

Upon hearing this, everyone else's eyes widened in shock. "That's not weird at all," Sam said, sarcasim dripping off her every word.

"It was only once, and I've masturbated to other stuff before: like being in a three-way with Star and the ghost boy."

_I so didn't need to hear that, _Valerie thought, feeling uncomfortable about hearing Paulina wanting to have sex with her best friend and her worst enemy. _Wait, then that means..., _"You're bi?" Valerie asked, finishing her train of thought out loud.

"Yep. And Dash didn't just boot me out of the popular crowd," Paulina continued. "He completly derailed my plans to sleep with Star, and got me kicked off the cheerleading squad where I was able to look up other girls' skirts! Do you have any idea how awesome that was?"

"Ridiculously awesome?" Tucker said, venturing a guess.

"Exactly!" Paulina screamed, took a few deep breaths and calmed down. "Sorry about that. Anyway, Dash is going to get exactly what he deserves, even though just slandering him isn't exactly my plan A."

"It isn't?" Danny asked, becoming increasingly freaked out by the real Paulina. "What else did you have in mind?"

"Well, what I would really like to do is rip off Dash's testacles and force feed them to him."

"Gross!" Tucker exclaimed. "Can we never mention Dash's testacles ever again?"

"If you think that's gross, then you don't even want to hear about my other idea," Paulina said with a playful smirk. "I'm not going to tell you it because it might scar you, but I'll give you a hint: it involves 50,000 rotten eggs and a chainsaw."

An awkard silence fell over the group as they wondered just what Paulina would do with those items. After about 40 seconds, Paulina spook up again. "So Valerie," Paulina began. "There's something I've been meaning to ask you for a while."

"What's that?" Valerie asked.

"You and Star are an in the closet couple, right?" Paulina asked.

"What!?" Valerie screamed. "What the hell would make you say that?"

"Well, it's just that you and Star continue to hang out while all the other popular kids abandoned you like you had the plague when you became poor."

"Becuace Star and I have been friends since before we started high school and because she likes me for who I am, not just because of my status. You know, it is possible for two girls to be friends without any lesbian feelings developing between them."

"Where's the fun in that?" both Tucker and Paulina asked simultaneusly, then stared at each other with eyes widened in shock.

_Okay, this is getting weird even by my standards, _Danny thought to himself. Once again, an awkard silence fell over the group until Paulina spoke up.

"You know," the hispanic girl began, "I have dirt on Star and Kwan as well. Maybe we can destroy them as well."

"What have you got them?" Valerie asked.

"Kwan is a hermafrodite. And Star, in addition to not being a natural blond, has two moms."

"Wait a second," Sam said. "Those football players see each other naked all the time. How could Kwan possibly keep that a secret?"

"Kwan is Dash's number one toadie, and he's able to intimate the other jocks into keeping their mouths shut," Paulina explained.

"I can't believe that blond bitch," Danny said. "She has the nerve to say that my parents are freaks when she doesn't have normal parents herself."

"Star may have two moms, but unlike some people's parents, they have respectable professions and aren't crazy," Paulina said.

"Hey. My parents..." Danny began, then relized he didn't know how to finish that sentence. "Aw, who the hell am I kidding." Danny said in a defeatist tone.

_I love it when I win, _Paulina thought as she grinned.

"Paulina, I don't think destroying Star and Kwan is necessary," Valerie said. "The only thing they're guilty of is following Dash's lead, just like we used to do."

"Fine," Paulina grumbled. "We won't destroy Star and Kwan." _For now,_ she added in her head.

"I've got to say Paulina, there's a lot more to you than I would have thought," Valerie said. "You're crude, intelligent, vindictive, bisexual..."

"I know," Sam interupted as she put Paulina in a sideways hug. "Isn't she great?"

"You two seem to have gotten awfully friendly," Danny said.

"Well actually, we're kind of a couple now," Sam said.

_Hallejlulya,_ Tucker exclaimed in his head as Danny and Valerie widened their eyes in surprise.

"Is that going to be a problem?" Paulina asked, to which Danny and Valerie shook their heads no while Tucker just grinned like an idiot. "Good. Now let's watch some movies."

With that out of the way, some went over to the DVD player and started Pan's Labyrinth.


	5. Chapter 5

Author's notes: I'm not entirely sure how steroid abuse is dealt with in the real world. I ask you to overlook inaccuracies for the sake of the story.

--

Several days later, Tucker had anonymously and widely sent the slanderous e-mail accusing Dash of steroid abuse and the school of corruption. It reached the attention of the school board, who felt the matter warranted in depth investigation. They got a court order to search Dash's house and found anabolic steroids. Following this discovery, Dash was kicked off the football team.

It was lunch time at Casper High following this turn of events. Paulina was sitting with Danny, Sam and Tucker, savoring her victory. "It's true what they say," she said.

"About what?" Sam asked.

"About revenge being like a cherry Popsicle: cold and sweet."

"Who says that?" Tucker asked.

"I do, starting right now," Paulina said, then heard an ominous stomping sound approaching her from behind. "Hello Dash."

"How did you know it was me?" Dash asked, stopping behind the girl who ruined his life. The sports jacket he used to constantly wear was gone, replaced by a simple black T-shirt.

"I detected the scent of dandruff shampoo and monkey urine," Paulina said as she exited her seat and faced the former student athlete.

"Look, I know it was you who spilled the beans about me juicing up."

"How do you figure that.?"

"You were pissed with me for telling everyone that you're gay and getting you thrown out of the popular crowd. And you would have know about my steroid use from before you were a dyke."

"Bravo Dash," Paulina said as she mockingly clapped. "Apparently you're not the complete retard I always thought you were. Yes, I did tell everyone about you using steroids. But if you didn't want me doing that, then you shouldn't have made everyone abandon like you did."

"If you didn't me turning everyone against you, then you should have had sex with me."

"I wouldn't have sex with you if we were the last two people alive and we had to repopulate the planet."

"Paulina," Dash said through gritted teeth as he began cracking his knuckles. "If you're hoping I'm above beating up a girl, you're about to be proven wrong."

"Go ahead," Paulina said calmly.

"You're not going to run away or cower in fear?"

"I doubt I can outrun you, and I'm not going to give you the satisfaction of cowering or begging for mercy you clearly don't have. Besides, I'm curious what will happen if you do now that Lancer and the other teachers have no reason to cover for you."

Used to having people be afraid of him, this declaration took Dash by surprise. Plus, he knew that Paulina was right about the teachers no longer having any reason to look the other way about his bullying. Faced with these facts, Dash growled in anger and stormed away.

"Teines cajones grandes," Sam said in Spanish to Paulina.

"Ci, yo hago," the hispanic girl replied.

--

After school that day, Sam and Paulina were standing outside Sam's house. They were about to do something that Sam was very much against.

"I don't see why I need to come out of the closet to my parents," Sam said.

"Because it's the right thing to do," Paulina responded.

"You wouldn't be saying that if you knew my parents. We barely get along as it is because they don't like my gothic lifestyle. Based on that, their not going to be happy to learn I'm gay."

"I've already talked to my parents about your situation. If your parents don't take the news well, they'll let you stay at my place until they cool down."

"And if they never calm down?"

"We'll deal with that when we have to. Now let's get this over with," Paulina said, and the two girls stepped inside the Manson residence. Sam found her parents, and everyone gathered in the living room.

"Mom, dad," Sam began, then took a deep breath as she gathered her strength. "I'm gay."

"Oh," Sam's dad, Jeremy, said. There was silence for several seconds. "This is awkward," he continued as he rubbed the back of his head.

"Why aren't you two exploding right now? I just told you I'm gay and you're not kicking me out of the house and saying that you never want to see me again."

"Do you really think that we'd do that to our own daughter?" Sam's mom, Pamela, said with a hurt tone in her voice.

"Well, we've never been really close," Sam said. "And if you've never been cool with my choice of clothes, why would you be okay with me being attracted to other girls?"

"Sam, have you forgotten that I'm jewish?" Jeremy said. "I grew up hearing all about the evils of prejudice. That kind of made me a little more tolerant. But only about the big things like ethnicity and creed, not the little things like choice in clothes and music."

"I see," Sam said as he let this new information process. "But what about mom? She wasn't raised jewish."

"Jeremy, can I have some time alone with them?" Pamela asked.

"Of course dear," Jeremy said, then left the room. Once that was out of the way, Pamela took a deep breath.

"Sam," She began, "I think it's time you learned about a certain period of my life. When I was in college, I experimented with another woman for almost a year."

"Really?" Paulina asked, interest evident in her voice.

"Really," Pamela answered before continuing with her story. "And if you think that's interesting, then you'll like this. The woman I experimented with was named Samantha."

"You're saying..." Sam began.

"That I named you after the lesbian lover I was forced to give up," Pamela finished. "That's right."

"Forced to give up," Paulina repeated. "Can you elaborate on that?"

"This was back in the 80's, when people were much less tolerant about homosexuals than they are now. I wasn't strong enough to want to stand up against that kind of discrimination, so I left Samantha. And it wasn't an easy decision. Oh, the things she made me feel..."

"La la la," Sam said as she covered her ears. "I can't hear you."

"I meant emotional things," Pamela said once Sam removed her hands. "Although the sex was great. Do you want to hear about that?"

"No!" Sam exclaimed in fear, then calmed down a little. "I mean, no thank you."

_Oh she's good, _Paulina thought, taking note of Pamela Manson's ability to torment her daughter.

"How much of that story does dad know?" Sam asked.

"He knows that I experimented in college, but not about the reason I chose your name," Pamela said. "Maybe we could keep that our little secret."

"Okay."

"Great. And I wish you two all the luck in the world," Pamela said, then hugged her daughter and left.

"That was unexpected," Paulina said.

"I know," Sam agreed. "Who would have thought that coming out of the closet would improve my relationship with my parents? But considering how bad things were between us, I really shouldn't be surprised by this outcome."


	6. Chapter 6

Author's notes: this chapter takes place at the end of Phantom Planet. The only differences are that Danny and Sam did not become a couple and Paulina was at the artic base.

--

The earth had been saved from the disasteroid. Danny had revealed the secret of his douple life just 20 minuets ago. Since then, Valerie had disappeared into some unknown part of the artic base and Paulina had not said a word. The hispanic bisexual girl had simply put an angry expression on her face.

"I know you're mad at me," Sam said to her currently pissed off girlfriend. "But look, it very important that we kept Danny's secret a secret. Even his parent's didn't know."

"Well of course they didn't know," Paulina said. "Telling his ghost hunting parents that he's part ghost would be like a black guy throwing himself at the mercy of the KKK. Look, I need to know: did you not tell me becuase of securtiy reasons or becuase you thought I would abandon you once I found out that the ghost boy was also the easily seduced Danny Fenton?"

"It was only for securtiy reasons," Sam said. "Besides, I don't think Danny's interested in you since he found out all those things about you."

"You mean my intillegence, bisexuality and other eccenctricities?" Paulina asked, to which Sam nodded yes. "That would freak out a lot of people. Fortunatly the only person whose opinion of me I care about any more is you," Paulina said embraced Sam and gave her a peck on the lips.

--

Danny had spent the past 10 minuets flying over and through the artic base looking for Valerie. While he wasn't looking forward to the awkard conversation he would have with her, he knew it was necessary.

After some time of searching, Danny found who he was looking for. _At least she's not in her ghost hunting suit _Danny noticed. _That's a good sign._

"Hello Danny," Valerie said in a low energy manner.

"Hello Valerie," he said as he touched down and reverted to his human form. Danny took this opportunity to explain himself: how the ghost dog incident was an accident, how unmasking her in front of her father was his way of protecting her from the ghost king and how he knew that she wasn't in her original suit when he destroyed it.

Valerie was so shocked by Danny's revelation that she didn't now what to make of it. So when he explained himself, she was willing to listen. "Danny, can you ever forgive me for what I did to you?" Valerie asked after Danny was done.

"Of course I can," Danny said. "You only attacked me because you were angry and misguided. But that's all in the past now."

"Oh Danny," Valerie said as she quickly embraced him. They stayed that way for several moments before breaking apart. "There's something else we need to talk about."

"What's that."

"I... I'm not really sure how to say this, I'll just take the direct approach. I'd like us to try being a couple again."

"I'd like that too," Danny said as he gently grabbed Valerie's hand. They stared into each other's eyes for a while before leaning forward and kissing.

--

Several days later, everyone had returned to Amity Park. Tucker was now inside the mayor's office, familiarizing hemself with what would now be his place of work. But he had another idea in mind. _Let's see if Vlad left anything interesting for me, _he thought as he began a thorough search.

Several minuets into his search, he heard his cell phone ring. "Hello," he said after he turned on the device and brought it to his ear.

"Hello Tucker," Paulina said on the other end. "There's something I want to talk to you about."

"What's that?"

"I was thinking about how we destroyed Dash's reputation by combining my evil genuis and your technological genius. I think that if we continued to do that in the future, we could make a lot of money."

"Did you have anything specific in mind?"

"Not yet, but I'll think of something eventually. And when I do, I'll let you know. Oh, and another thing: as my way of saying 'thank you' for helping me take down Dash, how would you like me to blackmail Star into going out with you?"

"I would like that very much. And since we're on the topic of blackmail, do you know Kwan's e-mail address? I ask because I plan to send him an e-mail informing him that if he doesn't stop harrassing my geeky brethren, I'll tell everyone about the secret in his pants."

"blackmail is fun, isn't it?"

"It sure is," Tucker agreed, then Paulina relayed the information he wanted. With that out of the way, he resumed his search for anything of interest. About 15 minutes later, he found a small bag with a money symbol on it that was filled with cash.

_Things are finally looking up for me_, he thought.

--

Sometime later, Sam and Paulina were spending time together in the park. "Sam, you know how I'm planning to join the drama club?" Paulina asked.

"Yeah," Sam said. The dark dressed teen had suggested the idea after seeing how well she had put on the act of being bubbly bimbo.

"Well when I do, I'm hoping we can put on a production of Romeo And Juliet, with you as Romeo and me as Juliet," Paulina said.

"A same gender version of Romeo And Juliet," Sam said as she contemplated the idea. "That'll piss a lot of people off."

"I know," Paulina said with a satisfied grin.

"Perfect," Sam said, then hugged her girlfriend. "I never thought I'd meet someone who'd enjoy pissing off the establishment as much as me."

"Well I never thought I'd meet someone who'd accept all my non-bimboey traits, so I guess we're even," Paulina said, then the two of them looked into their eyes in a lovestruck manner.


End file.
